Knocked out the tie rods today in about an hour. Nice to see the front wheels in line with the rears, at least now it will roll without turning.

This is what winching a heavy car using "J" hooks on the tie rods will do. The tow truck driver should have used "D" hooks instead. the part that really irked me was that both the left and right tie rods had recently been replaced with genuine MB parts. I might save the tie rod ends that don't have damaged boots, just to have as spares.



And comparing the old and new side by side.



Once the tie rods were done, I moved inside and reinstalled the crash sensor, the rear air ducts an floor heater duct on passenger side and the side panels for the center console. I have a replacement center console as the original had all the attachment points broken. I couldn't find one in beige but found a nice one in black. I decided to deviate from factory and go with the black console, it should look nice in contrast to the beige, and should tie in nicely with the black dash pad. I'll have a picture when it is installed.

__________________
Mike Tangas
'73 280SEL 4.5 (9/72)- RIP
Only 8,173 units built from 5/71 thru 11/72

'02 CLK320 Cabriolet - wifey's mid-life crisis

2012 VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI...at least its a diesel

Non illegitemae carborundum.